Swiss-based artist Marie Matusz and Kashmiri artist Moonis Ahmad Shah have been selected for the latest edition of the Connect India dual residency
Launched in 2021 by Arts at CERN and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Connect has established itself as a key platform for artistic experimentation in connection with fundamental science. The programme continues its mission of fostering meaningful dialogue between artists and scientists through residencies at CERN and partner scientific institutions around the world.
Connect India offers artists a unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge scientific research in Geneva and Bengaluru, exposing artists to two unique scientific facilities and the fundamental research they conduct. Marie Matusz and Moonis Ahmad Shah have been selected by a jury of cultural experts for the 2026 residency.
In Geneva, the artists will explore CERN’s wide range of experiments in particle physics, while in Bengaluru they will engage with the research of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), including fields like statistical and condensed matter physics, mathematics, astronomy and physical and computational biology. The artists will receive support from the Arts at CERN and ICTS curatorial teams to explore new forms of creative expression and be inspired to create new works of art.
Marie Matusz’s practice centres on critical engagement with forms and their inherent meanings, influenced by in-depth research into philosophical, sociological and linguistic theories. Her work manifests these concepts through minimal sculptural installations, sound works, writings and films.
For Connect India, Matusz will continue her ongoing explorations of the relationship between body, light and field by investigating their interaction when light becomes a physical quantity – measured and modelled at scales beyond human intuition. The project Body in the Dark will draw on particle detection, specifically the conditions in which particles are registered and the traces they leave in a field – inferred from pattern and absence in near-total darkness.
Moonis Ahmad Shah is an artist working across installation, sculpture, computer programming, sound and video. His work explores what hovers at the threshold of appearance – what cannot be fully seen, counted or stabilised, yet continues to exert force.
During his residency, he will develop The Threshold Atlas: The Luminous Lal Muni, which takes as a point of departure Lal Muni – the mythical and luminous bird from South Asian folklore that sings to everyone and everything except to the sovereign king. Shah will explore scientific thresholds in their theoretical and technical forms – cut-offs, symmetries, indeterminacies, calibration, filtering and the transformation of fleeting phenomena into evidence – to further investigate what becomes signal, what remains noise and how the unseen is brought into language, diagram, data or image.
This iteration of Connect India marks the third collaboration with ICTS for this dual residency, with additional support from Science Gallery Bengaluru. It is the sixth Connect dual residency overall, following successful editions with scientific and cultural organisations in Argentina (2025), Chile (2023) and South Africa (2021).
The jury was chaired by Giulia Bini, Head of Arts at CERN, Geneva, and was composed of Yasmin Naderi Afschar, Co-Director of the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich; Sabih Ahmed, Projects Advisor, Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, and Co-Artistic Director of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026; Samuel Leuenberger, Founder and Director of SALTS, Basel, and Curator of the Biennale Gherdëina 2026; Jahnavi Phalkey, Founding Director of Science Gallery Bengaluru; and Veeranganakumari Solanki, curator and writer based in Mumbai, India. Leonie Thalmann, Head of Global Encounters and Initiatives at Pro Helvetia, and Aman Kaur, Programme Manager at Pro Helvetia New Delhi, attended the jury meeting as observers.
